UNDERCOVERJohn Kennedy /
Special to the Daily NewsWith one fling, inventor Jeremy
Hoenack launches his lightweight Smartcover onto his car,
shielding it from grime and heat

Inventor's car protector
on in a flash

By Pam ParkStaff Writer

BURBANK-Male car lovers
may be willing to unfurl, tug and adjust a traditional
car cover over their whole car. But Jeremy Hoenack,
inspired by his wife, has taken a decidedly unmacho tack
with a lightweight and easily manageable car cover.
The Smartcover is a top cover that uses soft,
energy-absorbing weights to allow the cover to
"fly" across the car when thrown and settle
gracefully into place in seconds. It can keep a car
parked in full sun up to 80 degrees cooler inside, it
keeps the windshield and windows clean, it locks onto the
car when the car door is

closed, and
it doesn't take up a lot of space in the trunk.
"It works really well," says Maria Hoenack, the
woman Jeremy Hoenack had in mind when he invented the
Smartcover.
Maria Hoenack is a petite woman with a hereditary
condition that makes her arms shorter and smaller than
average.
Maria Hoenack particularly values the cover when she has
her 7-month-old son with her. When they get back to the
car after doing an errand, it's much more comfortable
inside for him, she said.
Janet Kaye, a Studio City business consultant, is among
the product's fans.
"I am in love with it. I liked it from the get-go,
and it grows on you," Kaye said.

"I park
outside under some trees. That gets my car filthy, and it
heats up in the summertime," she said.
Jeremy Hoenack said the steering wheel of a car parked in
the sun can get as hot as 195 degrees. It's hard for a
person to hold his or her hand on a 155-degree surface
for more than two or three seconds.
"If you leave your car in the sun all day, it may
get to 120 degrees even with the cover, but it won't get
that searing heat," Hoenack said.
The cover caught Kaye's eye because it doesn't cover the
whole car. She saw it at a carwash - on the cashier's
car.
"I just can't believe how simple it is," she
said.

It takes less
than a minute to put on and take off and Kaye put the
cooling factor to the test on a recent run of errands.
"I put it on every time I stopped, and what a
difference it makes," Kaye said.
Jeremy Hoenack may have found his niche. He's veering
away from the venues that would target mechanics and male
car enthusiasts. He thinks half-covers haven't sold
because they were targeted at men.
Smartcover is decidedly marketed to women.
"They don't want to fool with the full cover,"
Hoenack said. Putting on a full cover can be a workout
that will leave you sweating, he said.

Car creation fights
finger burn

Hoenack came
up with the Smartcover idea about three years ago. It's
one of a number of inspirations he says he has gotten
about 3 a.m.
"Inventing has just sort of been my thing from the
time I was a kid," he said.
Hoenack owns Sound Trax Studios in Burbank and invented a
digital audiovisual editing system that allows film
editors to edit on a computer screen and add sound
effects with a mouse click.
He was working on a patent for another sound-related
invention, but decided to patent the car cover first as a
practice run.
After he filed the Smartcover patent, it was time to
figure out how to manufacture and market it. A car cover
manufacturer wasn't interested because a half-car cover
it marketed had

bombed.
Hoenack tried a company that makes folding windshield sun
reflectors, but they weren't positioned to market it.
Eventually, Hoenack remembered Jackson Ko, a man he met
at a car show who manufactured reflective materials in
China. After being sold on the idea, Ko started producing
the Smartcover.
The Hoenacks decided to market the cover themselves. They
contacted Hammacher-Schlemmer and the company put it in a
catalog released June 19.
The covers starting selling almost immediately, Hoenack
said.
"They have exceeded our expectations in every
way," Hoenack said.
Hoenack produced a demonstration video in his studio and
put the demo tape and the car covers at the Classic Car
Wash in

Northridge
and the Toluca Lake Car Wash in North Hollywood.
Pat Villareal, cashier at Toluca Lake Car Wash, says
their location has sold about 25 of them, with no
returns.
People see the video while they wait for their carwash
and buy the $39.95 cover.
Smartcovers are popular with people who park their cars
at the Metro Rail terminal, where they're in the sun all
day, she said.
"They're doing well," she said.
Hoenack decided to get more exposure for the cover with a
media buy.
"We came to the conclusion that it would be a sin
not to make a TV spot, since we have all the resources
right here," he said.
Thirty-second commercials targeting women began airing
this week on The Food Channel, Game Show Network, Odyssey
and Oxygen cable networks.